Bye Bye Wisdom

Kiel had all four wisdom teeth pulled. I smile indulgently as he assures me he is perfectly capable of driving himself there and back. After all, they will give him some lidocaine, what could be so difficult?

I got a cute text from him after the event. "All done. lybbn" (his code for love you, bye bye now). Twenty minutes later I get a call from Drew. He and Kiel are at the pharmacy filling Kiel's prescriptions. Kiel is desperate to take something NOW for pain since the lidocaine is wearing off, and he is not sure he will have enough money if the prescription is expensive. I instruct him to ask the pharmacist to sell him 1 pill and I will come in later to purchase the rest.

Now the moaning begins in earnest. This is definitely not what he had in mind. He really thought that the whole thing would be easier, despite watching me go through 3 separate occasions of tooth pulling and recovery. This is a far cry from what he anticipated. Oh, if only I could take the rap for him, I would. But he will have to get through this himself.

When I get home, he is sitting in a chair sipping soft stuff and singing the praises of Vicodin, the wonder drug of choice. He barely talks so as not to move his jaw, but he is in better spirits. The next week is a mixture of feeling better, feeling worse. While his cheeks didn't really swell up, the side with the most stitches is taking its time healing. He nurses it along, wishing for the healing to hurry up.

Everyone around him jokes about his loss of wisdom, but in truth, he has gained a great deal of experience and with that, wisdom in how to handle these sorts of things. Rough knocks, but unavoidable. Hopefully he will feel better soon.